Ruby's Musings :

I definitely felt after this past year at Nowhere that for many different reasons we needed both some form of closing ceremony and a communal activity on the Sunday which never happened...After the big climax of Saturday night we need something to bring us all together before leaving our beautiful little cosmos we spent those weeks creating and heading back into the matrix. Sunday felt a little fragmented and confused and raw with a lot of people feeling overwhelmed and there was a big potential to do something to both bring us all together again, in more of a peaceful, reflective, soothing and sombre mood than the manic antics of Saturday. There was nothing that was organized in this way but even if there had been a lot of people left on the Sunday so it wouldn't really have happened as well as it could have done anyhow. Aim for next year: we really need to communicate to people to leave on Monday earliest and not Sunday! I think a lot of newbies underesimated the need for decompression and gradual re-entry into their regualr reality and we really need to communicate the need for this next year.

I would like to suggest both some kind of very simple actvity during the day on Sunday and then a closing ceremony at night.

Having just been to Antic Banquet where 200 people gathered in a circle in meadow in Norfolk and enjoyed a fabulous communal banquet at the end of the festival, I think food would be a great way to bring people together on the Sunday – maybe a communal feast/tea party in the middle of Nowhere where everyone brings food to share?

Burning Man ends with the Temple Burn symbolizing people's personal intentions of letting go and releasing of loved ones who have passed on of anything else that needs letting go. 'Release' seemed to be such a prominent theme at Nowhere for so many people. And for many, including myself there seemed to be confusion as to how to deal with this in a constructive, positive way. Nowhere could benefit immensly through having something to aid this which is where Ellen's project could tie in so beautifully, which could then culminate in a closing ceremony symbolizing the letting go and release of everything that needs to be...